Call for Early Adopter Beta testers: Google Pixel 4a 5G

Announcements & News Release Notes (Republic)
#1

If the Google Pixel 4a 5G is the phone of your dreams and you ordered it just hoping we’d support it, we’d like to invite you to participate in our Early Adopters program with early access to test this new phones on our service.

Likewise, if you’re not yet a Republic member but have had your eye on us and own the Google Pixel 4a 5G, we invite you to participate in our Early Adopter program and try your new phone on our service.

Requirements:

  • You must submit an interest form that includes a legal disclaimer, and pass a basic screening process.
  • You must have functional coverage on T-Mobile’s GSM network
  • You must provide your own phone:
    • Google Pixel 4a 5G (G025E)

Please make sure you do not buy a carrier-subsidized version. We support only the North American, factory unlocked version of any BYOP phone.

You will be expected to provide feedback in our #beta category.

If you are interested in participating, please reply below, or message me personally for further details.

4 Likes
Could we have Pixel 4a 5G news in time for Black Friday sales?
#2

Hello Lefty
I have in my possession a Pixel 4a 5G phone and would love to be in the beta test
Where do I find the interest form so I can fill it out.

Happy Holidays,

Bill (wvfisher)

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#4

Hi Southpaw,
I have a 4a5g coming from the google store tomorrow and would love to be a beta tester for it. Let me know what I have to do.

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#5

@southpaw I would also like to be a beta tester. I will have the 4a 5G within the next couple of days.

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#6

My new 4a5G was delivered today! Please let me know how to find the required form to become a beta tester to save me from Google Fi… I am glad to hear the compatibility of this phone is in the works.

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#7

Hello, I would like to participate.

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#9

Filled out form and swapped SIM! Seems to be fully functional. Will be testing as I go and let you know if there are any glitches.

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#10

I filled out the form, swapped the SIM, and activated without issue. I see there there’s a post requesting feedback: Pixel 4a 5G Early Adopter Feedback, but I do not have permissions to comment there.

1 Like
#11

We’d definitely like to see feedback in the topic you linked, (or in newly created topics if other feedback comes up) but I do have to manually grant each person permission to post there and you caught me at lunch! :apple:

This is a very eager group of Beta testers! :dizzy:

I think I’m all caught up - everyone who has filled out the form can participate in the #beta:pixel-4a-5g-beta category now.

2 Likes
#12

@southpaw - Quick question before I mention it on the public page… should we expect to have 5G service on the Pixel 4a 5G? I noticed that my phone was connected to 5G, but I was thinking it was going to be limited to LTE for some reason.

#13

This is a public page, but it’s no secret that 5G-capable phones are seeing the 5G indicator in certain areas. If you run a speed test you’ll find that you’re not getting true 5G speeds, though you may be getting speeds as good as or slightly better than the best 4G speeds you’ve ever gotten. Feel free to run some speed tests and show us what you’re getting!

(@louisdi can probably explain it better than I can.)

1 Like
#14

There are two types of 5G, 5G NSA (Non standalone) and 5G SA (standalone). In addition there are a number of frequencies that 5G can run over, classed as low-band, mid-band and high-band.

Ok, so that’s background.

5G NSA is what is most of everything that’s deployed today. This flavor of 5G requires a 4G LTE signal. If you want the details you can find them here: 5G SA vs 5G NSA deployment: What are the differences (alepo.com) The interesting things about 5G NSA is that it doesn’t require a new SIM in most cases, just a 5G capable phone.

5G SA on the other hand requires a new SIM AND the phone has to be compatible with it. The Republic SIM is NOT 5G SA compatible.

Finally, there are the frequencies, this is where the main impact is to the user.

Today, much of T-Mobiles 5G is low band (600MHz) coverage. This 5G is, well, slow. You’ll get about 4G LTE speeds. It’s more efficient for the carrier, but there’s no real impact to the customer.

Then there’s mid-band 5G. T-Mobile is rolling this out now. It will be a bit faster than 4G, not a ton, but you could potentially see double the 4G LTE speeds in some locations.

Finally, there’s mmwave or high band 5G. These are the super fast, low latency 5G speeds you’ve seen talked about. Unfortunately, this right now is more science experiment than reality. High frequency signals don’t penetrate walls, or trees, or water, or glass, etc etc. The networks that are up are quite literally line of sight, covering a few city blocks in very specific areas. Carriers are going to have to deploy many many nanocells before this network becomes meaningful. In addition, not all 5G phones are even mmwave capable. (For instance only the Verizon version of the Pixel 5 is of the Pixel line). T-Mobile basically has none of this coverage (really only Verizon does).

Whoof. A lot of babbling there, and maybe completely unclear. But I hope it helps in some way.

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#15

This has T&T written all over it. I suggest “Understanding Emerging 5G Technologies” as a working title. :grinning:

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#16

Couldn’t you just see Louis rubbing his hands together gleefully as soon as he saw my ping? :nerd_face:

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#17

As someone that hasn’t been keeping up with mobile technologies over the past few years, that was incredibly informative. I ran some preliminary speed tests and the 5G connection was only marginally faster than the LTE connection. So that aligns with what you noted above. So far, so good, but I’ll keep testing! Thanks, @louisdi!

3 Likes
#18

We ARE eager and I love it! Fedex is supposed to deliver my phone tonight by…who know what hour…lol. I’ll absolutely be adding to the feedback no later than tomorrow! :slight_smile:

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#19

I’m interested in participating ~ would have 2 phones :slight_smile:

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#20

A post was merged into an existing topic: Any second thoughts about the Pixel 4a 5G?

#21

This Early Adopter Beta is now closed, since we have announced official support for the Google Pixel 4a 5G. Google Pixel 4a 5G is now supported for BYOP

A big thank you to those who participated in testing this phone with us!

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